By Northern Powergrid sorry for trillion pound compensation error
Northern Powergrid has apologised after a number of customers hit by power cuts during Storm Arwen accidentally received compensation cheques for trillions of pounds.
The firm is paying tens of thousands of pounds to customers hit by days of outages back in November.
However, a number of customers in Halifax and Newcastle were rightly shocked to see cheques made out for 13-figure sums.
Northern Powergrid said a clerical error was to blame.
Pictures of the humongous cheques have been circulating on social media after the firm was criticised for taking months to process compensation claims.
Gareth Hughes, from Hebden Bridge in West Yorkshire, shared a picture of his cheque for £2,324,252,080,110.
Sharing his new wealth to Twitter he wrote: “Thank you for our compensation payment North Powergrid for the several days we were without power following Storm Arwen. Before I bank the cheque however, are you 100% certain you can afford this?”
A spokeswoman for Northern Powergrid said an electricity meter reference was incorrectly quoted as the payment sum.
“As soon as we identified the clerical error we ensured all 74 customers’ cheques were stopped so they could not be cashed,” she said.
The firm said the error was being investigated and is thought to be an isolated incident.
“We thank those customers who were honest and contacted us and we have been making contact directly over the weekend with all 74 customers affected to make them aware, apologise for the error and reassure them that a correct payment will be issued to them on Monday,” the spokeswoman said.
(Image: Gareth Hughes/Twitter)
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